no more front lawn

I've been MIA for a while.  Here is one of the things that has kept me too busy to blog:

As I mentioned before, we are getting rid of the front lawn.  Yes.  I know.  It's sounds crazy.  But this wasn't some rash decision.  This has been planned for (literally) decades.  I was just waiting for my own yard so I could do it.  Why?   #1 - I don't believe in front lawns.  I don't begrudge anyone their front lawn.  If it makes you happy, keep it.  But as for me, I think it's silly to maintain our mini "estates" (yup, front lawns come from a social need to mimic English country estates) when we live in a desert.  Although xeroscaping is the most water efficient, even "regular" flowers take less water than maintaining grass.  After they're established, they take less work, too.  Lawns are perfect for running/playing/picnicking/etc, but since our family doesn't do anything of those activities in the front yard, why keep it?  #2 - I love to garden and my yard is small - so I want those precious square feet for flowers.

And so, the grass is gone.  And now I am the talk of the neighborhood.  I'm constantly getting comments on our progress.  At first the comments were more along the lines of concerns:  what were we doing?  Were we putting in sod?  Did I realize how much work it would be to maintain?  Now, I hear all about how they love to drive past and see what's new and about how good it looks and how beautiful it will be when it's finished.

Here's the house shortly after we bought it.

Here it is today.

We started with the west side of the front walk, so I could have something (more or less) finished.  It helps my Psyche (since this is such a huge project) and has pacified the most concerned of my neighbors (since they can see the vision).  

Here's a close up of the new fence.  It is set back about four feet from the sidewalk (so the water meter will be on the outside and since our east fence doesn't go all the way to the sidewalk, don't ask me why...).  When it's finished, it will have cost us only $100.  Yup, only a hundred dollars for a wood fence.  We purchased the posts, the cement and the stain.  Everything else will be free.  Beorn is remilling pallets for the pickets and the horizontals, as well as for the trellis. 

Not too bad for a recycled fence.

The pickets are odd sized on purpose.  #1 - I thought it would look good.  #2 - we can use almost every board from the pallets.  No, there isn't a pattern.

Here it is stained.

And here it is with the front landscaping.  Eventually those baby lavender plants will fill in and they will hardly need to be watered.  And the landscape fabric will keep weeding to a minimum.  You can also see how the trellis is coming along.

Here is the view from the house.  It's not completely planted yet and with our finances, it'll probably take years to get it just the way I want it.  I've bought few plants, moved some from the backyard and I have been given lots of seeds from neighbors, so next year it will be full of flowers.

The east side is still a mess:  fence in process, trellis to finish, roses being cut back/taken out, stumps to remove, cinder blocks (from the planter) to move, dirt to remove (we're leveling the yard while we're at it)...